Page 107 of Disobedient Pawn

“Yer okay just breathe, Snowflake, yer gonna pass out again if ya keep that up.”

I took long, deep breaths, and Ren eventually relaxed.

“My mum ordered me to go into the closet and get her a gun. I didn’t know we owned one, but I would do anything to protect her. But once I was in there, she hit a button, and the closet turned into a safe room I didn’t know existed. I was trapped in this small prison while the men….” I held Ren tighter as a sob gripped her, and she covered her mouth. “But…what if they weren’t there for her? What if they were there for me? What if I got my mum killed?”

I rocked her like a child.

“No Ren, no matter what happened, none of this is your fault.” I held her until she stopped crying. “Can ya think back? Was there anything weird in your life, or did the men say anything you heard that could give us a clue?”

She shook her head.

“The only thing weird was that my father had a job at a marketing firm. He did graphic design for printing jobs. Then one day, he came home and said he’d been offered a job with Collier Inc. I didn’t even know he was looking for a job. I have no idea what he does for Nash’s father, but he changed after that.”

I kept rocking her, never wanting to let her leave this room.

“Changed how?”

“Workaholic, and he liked to travel before, but we never went anywhere after that. He became cold and distant and barely spoke to me and my mum. It was like…like he just…” She stopped as she cried a little more. “Like he just stopped loving us. It was like one day a switch flipped, and he wasn’t the dad I remembered.”

“Was there anything else ya can remember?”

“When I was in the safe room, I couldn’t hear anything, but I found a monitor and was watching.” She stopped, and I didn’t press as she cleared her throat, collecting herself. “One of the men had a tattoo on his forearm. It looked like a polar bear, maybe. I’m not sure. God, this is frustrating.”

“That’s okay, Snowflake. We’ll figure it out.”

I kissed her temple, and she leaned away from my body, her intense eyes searching for something.

“What—” I started, but she grabbed my face, and my heart leaped from my chest.

“I…umm….”

“Just do it,” I whispered, unable to peel my eyes away from her lips.

Her cheeks pinked to a deep rose, and I was ready to grab her face when she touched her lips to mine. The world could’ve exploded, and I would’ve been none the wiser. How was it that one person, one moment, could feel so life-altering?

I was nothing more than a shadow floating around aimlessly in a world that never belonged to me. A puppet in a game far greater than myself for so long that I forgot I should want more. I was playing a game, and doing all the right things, holding the remote but never in control.

With just a touch, she ignited a new desire inside me. Wrapping my arms around Ren, I deepened the kiss, begging entrance to her mouth.

“Open for me, Snowflake. Open your mouth like a good girl,” I whispered, nipping at her bottom lip.

Her lips trembled slightly against mine like she was nervous, but before I could ask, she opened her mouth and ran the tip of her tongue seductively along my lip. My heart stopped altogether, and I forgot to breathe as my brain zeroed in on nothing but the taste of her.

“Good girl,” I said and kissed her hard.

I couldn’t get enough as I drank her up and swallowed down her moans. She was making me unbelievably hard. My entire body strained, and even though I knew I shouldn’t, I shifted us around and laid her down on the bed, settling myself between her thighs.

Ren kissed me as if we’d always been lovers like I’d kissed her a million times before, and she knew exactly what I wanted and liked. When her hands gripped my hair, I almost lost my senses completely and quickly broke the kiss. It was impossible not to want more when I stared into her eyes, to bury myself inside her and stay locked in here all night.

“Fuck,” I growled, and—with self-control, I didn’t know I had—pushed myself up and off her body.

Ren was panting hard, and the top few buttons on her blouse had popped open, giving me a delicious view of the white bra underneath. So close, so fucking close.

“What are you doing,” Ren asked, sounding like I’d smacked her instead of doing the right thing.

“I can’t do this.”

She grabbed the top of her shirt and held it closed. Her eyes were snapping with anger that made me want to say fuck it and get back into bed despite all the reasons why that would be bad right now.